Double standard

A double standard is a rule which is applied more stringently to one party than to others. Double standards are seen as unjust, because they violate a principle of justice known as impartiality. Impartiality is the principle that the same standards should be applied to all people, without regard to subjective bias or favoritism. A double standard violates this principle, by holding different people to different standards.

Related Topics:
Justice - Impartiality - Bias - Favoritism

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While double standards are generally condemned in the abstract, they are also very common. Efforts to defend purported double standards usually take the form of denying that a double standard is being applied, or attempting to give a good reason for the disparate treatment.

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For example, children are generally forbidden from acts such as drinking and smoking while adults are permitted to perform such acts. This differential treatment could be described as a double standard, because people are being held to different standards. However, one defending this differential treatment could argue that there is a good reason for the different treatment -- that children are inherently less capable of making mature decisions regarding those activities, so they should be protected from risky and potentially harmful behavior. The counterargument would then be that children are not inherently less able to make good decisions, as there are some people who are more mature in their decision-making than other adults, so that age is an arbitrary criterion.

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Thus, the key factor in determining whether a double standard is being applied is whether or not there is adequate justification for the different treatment.

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